No power in the water

[Kerlin]

Can you describe that a little further? What's a throttle guardian? I'm not sure the merc 240 has that. At least I've never heard of it. Where would I find it, is it an electrical type connector?

 

[srow]

Sorry I completely missed this thread -- If you're showing an open circuit on the trigger that could very well be your problem as these are the same symptoms my boat was having -- Were you testing as per the manual? ie proper colour-coded wire combinations to obtain prescribed resistance, test on whatever ohm setting gives you 3 decimal places... (if I remember correctly).

I would also pull back the loom and check the integrity of the wires -- if the insulation looks weathered and baked that could very well be it -- mine showed proper resistance until I exposed/moved the wires... Good luck!

Thank you everyone for your help so far. I'm still diligently pushing through this issue spending an hour or two a day playing with this thing. Before I drag this thing 45 min to the lake for a test under load, already knowing the problem still exists, I wanted to take a stab at SROW's suggestion and test the trigger assembly. I don't want to get my hopes up here, as I've done that several times already. I tested resistance on the trigger with my meter. Using the service manual, I attempted to read the resistance between several sets of wires on the trigger wires while unplugged. I get no response from the ohm meter. I tested the meter against itself and it's working properly. Am I missing something here? I tested the trigger with it plugged from the boat matching the colors as indicated in the book. None of the connections changed the meter from 1, or the initial display when no circuit is completed. I tried all the settings on the meter in the ohm settings, as I'm not overly familiar with what setting it needs tested on (20k, 200k, 20m etc). Same result each time, or no result I should say. Can anyone give any advise on this? Is it safe to say I need to order the new trigger? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[philipmurphey]

Throttle guardian is to help assist slow speed steering by applying some throttle when the wheel is turned hard to one side. I have read that a lot of problems occur when they start to go bad and most people just disconnect them and move on. It is located under the driver side hatch. I believe its a black box. The 240 merc does have one.

 

[Kerlin]

You are absolutely right. That isn't working on mine. It worked last year. I didn't realize that could cause more problems leaving it connected. I'll give that a shot. Thanks!

 

[Kerlin]

So the throttle guardian cable was disconnected on the engine side. Looks like the plastic piece holding the wire in place worked itself out. I was able to replace it and it's working as it should again when you turn the steering wheel to full in both directions. Could this have been my problem. Seems to me without the cable attached the boat would just assume that it wasn't activated yet

 

[Kerlin]

After several more trips to the lake with having the same original failing experiences, I've finally cut the black/purple wire to the throttle guardian. It seems that has solved the problem ( after several hundred invested dollars in other trial and error issues). Thanks again everyone for the help. This forum has been a god send.